Conquering the mountainous North American Pacific Crest Trail is no walk in the park, but that never stopped Deb Fuller, a 63-year-old great-grandmother of six, and her husband Rick from taking on the trek.

The seasoned outdoor enthusiasts were determined to scratch the 2,650 mile trail off their bucket list. Luckily, with experience comes safety-consciousness, so the couple brought their SPOT GEN3® Satellite Messenger along for their adventure.

While on a seven day hiking trip in Tasmania, Australia, Han Strating and his girlfriend were near New Pelion when they came across another hiker experiencing heart problems. Realizing the man was in need of serious medical attention; Han quickly pulled out his SPOT GEN3® and pressed the S.O.S. button. Luckily, there was a nurse with the individual who was already providing first aid to keep him stable while they waited for help.

Since the SPOT GEN3 belonged to Han, GEOS, reached out to his mother who happened to be his primary point of contact. Han’s mother, who happened to be on the other side of the world and with no prior knowledge of his whereabouts, became very wary upon receiving the call from GEOS. Han says that his mom was “stressed for a few hours, but ultimately was happy and proud of what I did…” Within 2 ½ hours from when Han pressed the S.O.S button on his SPOT device to aid the fellow hiker, the Westpac Rescue helicopter arrived at their location to take the patient and his wife to Hobart Hospital. As soon as the helicopter took off, Han began notifying his friends and emergency contacts that he was indeed okay and not in danger.

Early in the morning of March 10th, 2016, Adam Noah, a hunter from Baker Lake, Nunavut, headed out on his snowmobile for a day of caribou hunting. By the middle of the afternoon, when he was in a remote area about 45 kilometers east of Baker Lake, his snowmobile broke down. The temperature in that area was -40° Celsius.

For the past two years Noah says he has owned a SPOT GPS Satellite Messenger, which he carries with him as part of his emergency gear whenever he goes hunting or fishing. "We don't only use a snowmobile when we go out hunting or fishing. We always have a sled attached which carries survival gear. It gets so cold that you can't just go hunting for the day without emergency gear." For Noah, SPOT is an important part of his emergency gear.

Matt Oliver and four friends picked a beautiful day for snowmobiling in Steamboat Springs, CO. They set off on their ride around 10 AM and traveled a familiar route. A few hours into their ride, they decided to take a different path back to their vehicles. The new path led them to a creek ravine and they realized they were getting into dangerous avalanche terrain. They began strategizing the best way out.

The group of five experienced snowmobilers vacillated about driving back through their old tracks, but after determining their location via their GPS system, they decided it was safer to head down the creek for another half mile rather than driving back uphill. The thick blankets of snow made it very difficult for them to make much distance and they knew they couldn't continue on without putting themselves at a greater risk.

Luckily, Matt and his friends were well prepared with saws, thermals, boiling pots and Matt's SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger. "I pressed the S.O.S. on my SPOT to alert GEOS International Emergency Rescue Coordination Center, knowing that it would not be until morning when search and rescue could safely come help us," commented Matt. They made a fire and set up camp for the night. Meanwhile, GEOS contacted Matt's mom and dad to let them know of the situation. The family was advised that it would take some time for search and rescue to assist due to the situation of snow and avalanche danger.

SPOT GPS Satellite Messenger Rescue:
Cam Villeneuve is a recreational pilot from the Thompson Valley Sport Aircraft Club in Kamloops, BC who loves to fly year-round. He has even installed skis on his small aircraft so that he can "land everywhere, on land, on hill sides and on lakes."

In the mid-afternoon of February 1st, 2016, Villeneuve was returning to Blair Fields Airport, wrapping up a 45-minute flight. It was a beautiful sunny day and he was having fun landing and taking off from frozen lakes on the south side of Kamloops. On his approach to the landing strip, at a distance of about 3 miles, the aircraft "became very unstable and hard to control" says Villeneuve. "All of a sudden I was looking straight down at the ground from about 400 feet."